


Finding Family

by Anonymous



Category: Kung Fu Panda (Movies)
Genre: Gen, I don't even want to post this so I don't know why I'm about to
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-23 22:58:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19711219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Little Po gets picked up by some slavers while looking for herbs for his father's birthday. Altogether, the experience isn't too bad though, since he comes out of it with a new friend.





	Finding Family

**Author's Note:**

> I read the first chapter of Fate Can Be So Cruel by Pandafan91 on fanfiction dot net. I got too wrapped up in this before I could even think of reading chapter 2.

Po let out a small whimper as his cage rattled with the latest jostle of the cart. He’d only gone out of the city to look for the tasty flowers for his father-- it was his daddy’s birthday after all-- when a bunch of mean and scary crocodiles had come out of nowhere and just scooped him up. 

“I still can’t believe we found a panda cub,” Po heard one of the gruff voices walking along the covered cart say, “what a score.”

“Between this and that _monster_ , we can eat like kings for years!” Another answered.

Po froze. _M-monster?_ His eyes darted around the back of the cart. He saw other cages filled with small kids like all the ones he normally saw in the village. Piglets, goslings, and the like. Nothing that looked like a monster. Then he heard a loud clank of metal on metal from right behind him. Stiffening, Po slowly turned just enough to peek over one of his shoulders. 

There was a single, big box. All of its walls were made of solid metal with only a single small peephole facing directly at Po. Only darkness could be seen inside. Po gasped and turned back around pretending he hadn’t seen it. _Who knew what kind of terrifying monster could be in there?! ___

__“Good thing it was asleep when we raided that orphanage. Did you see all those claw marks?”_ _

__Po’s ears twitched at the crocodiles’ words._ _

__“Who knew something so dangerous could be so,” a pause, “ _small_?”_ _

__It was Po’s turn to pause. He’d heard similar things about himself before. He was already catching up to some of the adults in size himself and some of the whispers exchanged between them weren’t _whisper-y_ enough for Po not to overhear. Taking a big inhale, Po carefully whipped around to look into the peephole. Just darkness. Po squinted. Still just darkness._ _

__“He,” he asked softly, “hello?”_ _

__Silence._ _

__“Hello?” He tried a little louder, making sure he couldn’t be heard by the boisterously laughing crocodiles._ _

__The slightest sound of clothing rustling followed by a loud clank._ _

__“Hi, um, my name is Po. What’s yours?” Po asked softly._ _

__The silence was back._ _

__“Hey, my name is--” Po’s voice was cut off by a whack at the cart jostling all the children inside._ _

__“Quiet, kid!” One of the crocodiles hissed._ _

__Po bit his tongue and whimpered, curling into a ball. He could feel tears working their way out of his eyes._ _

__“ _’onster._ ”_ _

__Po blinked, tears momentarily forgotten. “Wh, wha?” He asked quietly._ _

__“ _’m a monster. You shouldn’t talk to me,” came a delicate voice from inside the metal box. The monster sounded like they were the same age as Po. Po _knew it!___ _

___“My name’s Po,” Po whispered with excitement, inching closer to the box, his eyes never drifting from the peephole’s dark abyss. “What’s yours?”_ _ _

___A brief flash of a brilliant red flickered in the darkness before Po heard a scoff. “I told you. You shouldn’t talk to me.”_ _ _

___“‘Cause you’re a monster, right? Sometimes people call me mean names too just ‘cause I look different. You’re probably not really a monster. Probably,” Po decided._ _ _

___There was only quiet coming from the box for so long, the little panda cub thought that he just wasn’t going to get an answer again. “Different?”_ _ _

___“Huh?”_ _ _

___“You,” there was a pause, “look different?”_ _ _

___“Oh,” he chuckled loosely. “Yeah, uh, no one looks like me in my village. I’m a lot, uh, bigger. Sometimes I bump into things and break a bunch of stuff.”_ _ _

___The red was back, but this time it was steady. Directed right at Po. “You break stuff?”_ _ _

___“Yeah, but my daddy always forgives me,” Po said with a smile before he realized that he might never see his daddy again. “D,” he hiccupped, “ _daddy…_ ”_ _ _

___“You have a family?” the voice inside the box asked._ _ _

___Po nodded, wiping at the tears collecting in his eyes again. “I miss my daddy so much. It’s his birthday and I went to get him the flowers that taste real good when these mean green guys grabbed me. What if I don’t get back in time for his birthday?”_ _ _

___“I don’t have a family,” the voice in the box announced. “I break too many things so everyone thinks I’m scary. ‘Cause I’m a monster.”_ _ _

___Po frowned. “But I break tons of things and I have a family.” He furrowed his eyebrows before his face lit up with an idea. “Oh, I know!” Another sharp whack was driven into the side of the carriage. Po covered his mouth with his hands and waited until it sounded like the crocodiles were just interested in talking to one another again. “I know,” he whispered. “You can just be a part of me and my dad’s family. My daddy wouldn’t get angry at you for breaking things.”_ _ _

___“Re,” the red moved closer and Po realized it was a pair of eyes, “really?” There was so much hope in the small voice of Po’s new friend that it felt infectious. The panda could feel a smile growing on his own face._ _ _

___“Yeah! We just gotta,” his speech slowed down as he remembered where they were. “We just gotta get home.” He grabbed the bars of his cage and tried to shake them but they wouldn’t budge. Po could feel the tears coming back._ _ _

___“Are you stuck in there?” His new friend asked._ _ _

___“Ye,” he hiccupped, “yeah.” He looked at the metal box holding the other child. “You too.”_ _ _

___“Oh,” there was a pause. “No. I’m in here because I thought I would scare everyone else if I came out. They’re all terrified of me.” At that, Po looked back behind him to the other children. They were all cowering away from the weird kid who was talking to the _monster_._ _ _

___“So you can get out?” Po asked._ _ _

___They paused again. “Yeah.”_ _ _

___“You should get out then!” Po whispered urgently._ _ _

___“Uhm,” the voice was hesitant. “Are you sure you won’t be scared of me?”_ _ _

___“Pshhhht,” the tiny panda cub huffed, “why would I be scared of my own family?”_ _ _

___There was silence and then the red gleaming disappeared from the peephole once again. All the other children pressed up against the edges of their cages, trying to scoot as far away from the metal box, but Po was excited to meet his new friend. He didn’t have many._ _ _

___Something abruptly sprouted from one of the sides of the metal box and it took Po a second to realize it was an arm. It was a weird arm though. It was orange and black and white. It didn’t really look like the arms of most of the villagers he knew. In fact, the closest thing it looked like was-- he paused and glanced down at his own arm. It kinda looked like his. Not long after, there was another identical arm and the two pushed apart the metal the way Po had torn through his father’s old paper screen door so many times. His father eventually replaced it with a wooden one._ _ _

___Out of the hole crawled a small figure. Smaller than him for sure. Po’s throat felt like the one time he’d eaten way too much of his dad’s noodles raw and couldn’t talk because his tummy always felt ready to explode back up. Po knew he looked different from most of the people in the village including his dad. He was thicker, fluffier, his ears were different his hands looked different from everyone else’s hooves and wings. The kid standing in front of him looked more like Po than anyone else he had ever seen. They were orange and their tail was really long but otherwise, Po would bet you could barely even tell them apart. A huge smile lit up his face as he took in his new friend._ _ _

___“You look kinda like me!” Po announced excitedly, barely managing to keep his voice down. “We look like family and everything!”_ _ _

___“‘m Tigress,” the other child said softly._ _ _

___“I’m Po!”_ _ _

___“I know,” Tigress responded with a hint of a smile. “Do you want me to help you get out?”_ _ _

___“Oh, yes please!” Po scooted back and watched as Tigress clumsily pried apart the bars of his cage. Po squinted at the gap. “I think you need to make it bigger.” Tigress frowned before grabbing the bars again. Accidentally tearing them straight off the cage, Tigress looked at Po sheepishly. “Yeah, perfect! Now we just gotta go home.” Po lumbered out of his cage before turning to look at all the other children in the covered cart bed. “Oh.”_ _ _

___All the other children looked so scared. Po looked back at Tigress and saw the expression on that interesting orange and black face. _Oh._ They couldn’t just leave all these kids with the mean crocodiles while they went home. They’d have to help everyone. Po turned to tell Tigress just that when he realized Tigress had already approached one of the cages to pry apart the bars. The children inside were shivering, nearly in tears, and so Po rushed up and tried to shush them._ _ _

___“No, no, no, _shhhhhhh_. You don’t want the mean scary guys to hear, right? You need to be quiet,” he whispered. Once the gap was big enough, Tigress stepped back and moved on to the next cage. Soon enough all the children were free and huddling as far away from Tigress as possible. Po frowned. Tigress had just saved them but they were all being a bunch of stinky butts with the way they were acting. Tigress just looked really sad. That was the last thing Po wanted for his new family._ _ _

___“Now what should we do?” Po asked. Before Tigress could answer, the cart jostled again, shaking so much Tigress was forced to take a step forward to keep their balance. A step towards the other children. One of the tiny kids let out a loud bleat of fear and suddenly everything was being knocked over, crashing loudly-- like when Po had sent the mountain of dirty noodle bowls stacked next to the sink to the floor just last week. The cart stopped and the cover was pulled back to reveal the horde of terrified children._ _ _

___“Oh? How’d these pipsqueaks get out?” Five adult crocodiles were suddenly towering over them, sharp scary teeth poking out from their scaley, scarred lips. The children screamed and all backed up against the farthest wall of the wagon. All except Tigress._ _ _

___“The little monster is awake,” one of the adults realized, looking at the orange cub. “Shit. How are we supposed to contain it? Look what it did to the cages. Probably trying to get to the other kids to eat them.” Before Po could say anything, one of the crocodiles grabbed Tigress by the scruff of the neck and lifted Po’s one and only friend out of the cart._ _ _

___“I don’t know, guys. It looks pretty docile. Do you reckon’ it’s dumb?” With that Tigress twisted around in his grasp and sunk pointy teeth and claws into the limb. The crocodile screamed in pain, flailing his arm. “Shit, shit, _shiiiit_! This hurts like hell, guys!” The other crocodiles surrounded the panicking one, trying to dislodge Tigress. Po watched, terrified for his friend, when he noticed a strange figure approaching. The figure was the same size as him and Tigress, but they were moving _waaaaay_ faster than anyone he’d ever seen before. Before Po could open his mouth, the new person had already launched themself into the air and landed perfectly on top of a now downed crocodile._ _ _

___“I’d like to get this over with quick. My tea was almost ready back at the Jade Palace when I was called.” With that the figure was in the air again. Before Po could close his mouth this time, all the crocodiles but one were on the ground. The only guy still standing was in tears and it wasn’t long till he fell to his knees._ _ _

___“You broke my hand! You _broke_ it! _Please!_ ” the crocodile cried out. “Just let _gooo_!” His cries were cut short by a swift hit to his head and he fell to the ground too. The new guy was staring at Tigress and Po tumbled out of the cart in his haste to get to them. What if this new guy hurt Tigress like he hurt all those crocodiles. _ _ _

___“Hm, you really did break his hand,” the new figure said peering down at the unconscious crocodile as soon as Tigress had stepped back._ _ _

___“I break everything,” Tigress said simply. “I’m a mon--”_ _ _

___“Tigress!” Po was wheezing when he stumbled to a stop next to Tigress. “Ti, hoo. Hah, hah.” Catching his breath, he straightened up to look the new person in the eye. “Don’t hurt Tigress!” He declared, taking a step in front and spreading his arms._ _ _

___“I wasn’t planning on it,” the short figure said simply as he strolled past the two children to inspect the cart. “Tigress, was it? I assume you’re the one who opened all these cages.”_ _ _

___“Yeah!” Po declared with excitement. “Tigress is _super_ strong!”_ _ _

___“Like I said, I break everything.” Tigress didn’t sound nearly as proud as Po did._ _ _

___“You just need to learn how to control that strength. You’re from the Bao Gu orphanage, right?” Po glanced behind him, distracted by the swishing of Tigress's long tail._ _ _


End file.
